Watch De Rossi, the Italian Frank Lampard

With Italy playing two games in the next six days, it is time for them to show what they can do - and because of Francesco Totti, I expect them to figure strongly in the competition.

Totti is a wonderful guy and this could be his World Cup, even though he has had a bad ankle injury this season and has never shown his full ability in a tournament before. I really hope, for his sake and the sake of the Azzurri, that he plays brilliantly. I expect a lot from him - if Totti is in good shape he can bring his imagination to bear. But the whole team has to support him.

Totti is the focal point, the reference point for Italy. With his touches on the ball he can make his team-mates score. The Italian championship is really tough, so by the time you play in the tournaments you have already spent a lot of energy, but there are signs he will play in our first game against Ghana tomorrow. He has started in the past two friendlies against Switzerland and Ukraine. He just needs to play and then he will find his rhythm.

While Totti is a player everyone knows about, Italy also have one who is less famous but, to me, just as exciting. His name is Daniele De Rossi. About him I say: 'Il futuro e suo' - 'the future is his'.

De Rossi is the most complete central midfielder in Italy. He can attack and defend, and is one of the best young players in his position anywhere in the world. He is like Frank Lampard the way he combines with his fellow midfielders. He defends better than Lampard and can play in front of the defence. But he also has that Lampard style because he can go from box to box.

Before Gennaro Gattuso got injured last week, De Rossi still had a fight on his hands to get a first-team place, but now Marcello Lippi will surely play him as part of a three-man midfield with Andrea Pirlo and Mauro Camoranesi. Lippi is then likely to play Totti in the hole behind two forwards. De Rossi is one of the best and in very good shape right now. He also had a fantastic championship with Roma - make sure you watch him.

Italy's goals will come from Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino. Toni may not have the experience of playing in the Champions League, but he has the class to play well in Germany. He is in excellent form and has been scoring lots of goals for three years at Fiorentina.

Gilardino had his first chance at the top level this season with Milan after joining from Parma and he also did well in the Champions League, learning a lot up front from Andriy Shevchenko. Neither Toni nor Gilardino is super quick, but they are very good where it matters, in the penalty box.

Lippi has lots of strikers - he has also taken Del Piero, Inzaghi and Iaquinta - but it doesn't mean he lacks faith in any of them. It seems that England only have three, depending on Rooney, so maybe Eriksson believes in other solutions. But he is the exception among the World Cup managers. Eriksson probably didn't see any other strikers who were good enough.

Italy have made a mess of the past two tournaments, in South Korea and Portugal. We didn't make a good impression, but that has not dampened the public's expectations. We expect big things, just like the English.

Some may say Italy are not competitive at the moment, but just because Spanish teams won the Champions League and Uefa Cup this season it doesn't mean Spain will win in Germany.

We will have a good World Cup. Italian players still have the quality to show they are strong and in Lippi they have a manager who was used to winning with Juventus and who knows international football very well. All our group matches are very difficult, with the United States and the Czech Republic to come after Ghana, a game we must win. I know Ghana are very strong and physical, but they lack a top-class striker and I am confident of victory.

No matter how well we do in Germany there is the match-fixing scandal that hangs over us in Italy, known as Moggiopoli. The fans need to see things cleared up at Juventus and in Serie A and they need to see the people who made mistakes get punished. If that doesn't happen, the supporters will not go back to the stadiums.

Will it affect the national team? Everybody needs to change this situation from a negative into a positive. Italy as a team often react well in tough circumstances. Maybe they could even get stronger after this affair. They could become more compact and more united.